Pakomen (排骨拉麺): The Comfort Food of Japanese Prime Ministers

This dish of spare rib ramen—that the Japanese call pakomen (and if you read the kanji, it would be called pai gu la mian in Mandarin)—leapt out at me when I first studied the menu at the Capitol Hotel Tokyu ’s all-day dining restaurant, Origami, on our most recent trip to Tokyo . It is part of the hotel’s old time favourites menu that consists of beloved dishes that that had been served at the old Capitol Tokyu Hotel for decades. As it turned out, pakomen was one of eight varieties of ramen that had been served at the Capitol Tokyu. It was the most popular, and the one dish that purportedly every Japanese prime minister has enjoyed. (Given that the hotel overlooks the prime minister’s office, this is highly conceivable). The popularity of Capitol Tokyu’s pakomen was so overwhelming that it continued to be served even when the hotel ceased to operate, right through the clo...